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Topics: Football, Erik Ten Hag, Manchester United, European Super League, Premier League
Chris Byfield
Topics: Football, Erik Ten Hag, Manchester United, European Super League, Premier League
Erik ten Hag has risked angering Manchester United fans with his comments about the European Super League.
On Thursday A22, a company promoting a revamped European Super League (ESL) proposed a new competition containing 60 to 80 teams, each guaranteed a minimum of 14 matches per season.
In 2021 the same company had backed the controversial plans for an ESL, which at the time proposed a 20-team European competition with 12 permanent founding members.
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However following widespread condemnation from fans and media, six of those founding members - Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham - backed out of the project within three days.
A22’s new-look European Super League would be a competition with no permanent members and based on “sporting performance”, according to A22 chief executive Bernd Reichart.
The contingent of Premier League clubs involved in the previous ESL plans have so far kept their distance from A22’s new proposal.
However, United boss, Ten Hag, has risked angering a portion of the United fan base by claiming he is not against an ESL, provided it "makes football better".
Asked for his opinion on A22’s new proposal, Ten Hag said: “I’m aware of the dynamic of what’s going on but if I see they’re coming up with new ideas I have to have a look at it and I will make an opinion. So I’m not aware because we are playing so many games in this moment
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“We have to develop this team, we have some problems with new players to bring in, so that’s where my focus point is, therefore I need all my energy.
“About new European competitions; other people at the club will have a look at it and inform me if the time is there and we have to make decisions, but the decision is up to the club.
“I think the current structure is good but there will always be initiatives to make it better, to make the football better and that is what life is; people always want to construct better, which is a good thing because if it is in favour of the football, it is always good.”